TIDE GETS NO RELIEF FROM NCAA
Sep 18, 2002
The Birmingham News
STEVE KIRK and STEVE IRVINE
News staff writers
TUSCALOOSA An exhaustive investigation into the University of Alabama
football program that began 2½ years ago ended Tuesday when the
NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee denied UA's request to reduce severe
sanctions against the school.
Committee chairman Terry Don Phillips cited a "pattern of abuse by
boosters that has to be dealt with," and upheld penalties that include
postseason bans this season and next and 21 scholarship reductions over
three years.
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The UA defense team does not plan any future legal action.
Phillips echoed the Feb. 1 statement of NCAA Infractions Committee chairman
Thomas Yeager that without the diligent actions of UA's compliance
department, the illegal cash payments by Tide boosters to aid in recruiting
would have led to the second NCAA "death penalty" in history.
That would have shut down the football program.
"We found the Committee on Infractions was very deliberate in how
it mitigated the university's cooperation against heavier penalties
that most likely would have meant the death penalty," Phillips said.
Several UA officials released statements Tuesday expressing their disappointment,
but the strongest reaction came from attorney Robert Cunningham Jr. of
Mobile, who was hired to assist UA in its appeal.
"In the history of the NCAA, no member institution has ever received
a ban on postseason play in the absence of institutional culpability,"
Cunningham said, pointing to UA's case as primarily involving boosters
Logan Young, Wendell Smith and Ray Keller.
Tide head football coach Dennis Franchione, who wasn't at the school
when the violations occurred, said he refuses to think about things he
cannot control such as the NCAA.
"Talking about those guys is a waste of time and energy," Franchione
said. "... I've got enough to do in my 24 hours a day."
Mike DuBose, who was coach when most of the violations occurred, said
Tuesday that "I will not now or ever again talk about anything that
happened at Alabama."
Young said he was "shocked by some of the things the NCAA said today"
and declined further comment. Smith and Keller also declined comment.
Phillips, Clemson University's athletics director, led a four-person
committee that heard UA's appeal Aug. 16 in Chicago. It included University
of Southern California law professor Noel Ragsdale, Harvard University
attorney Allan Ryan and Robert Stein of the American Bar Association.
It could have been worse:
The appeals committee disagreed with all of UA's points:
UA's major contention involved the severity of the penalties, considering
that most of the violations focused on illegal booster payments and not
on university employees.
The appeals committee disagreed the penalties were too severe. It said
the penalties would have been much worse if UA employees hadn't cooperated
so thoroughly during an investigation into the recruitment of former players
Albert Means of Memphis and Kenny Smith of Stevenson.
"It is to the credit of the university's athletic administration
that it actively sought out the facts and thereby saved the university
from probably the ultimate penalty," Phillips said.
The appeals committee cited a Nevada-Las Vegas case in 2001 as precedent
for harsh penalties against a school that had mostly booster wrongdoing
and no lack of institutional control or failure to monitor, such as Alabama.
"The IAC is flatly wrong in this regard," Cunningham said. "The
UNLV case included specific findings of failure to monitor. In addition,
the (UNLV) violations were `remarkably similar' to previous (UNLV)
violations. Despite these differences (with Alabama's case), UNLV
received only a one-year ban on postseason competition.
"Rather than support the sanction imposed on Alabama, we believe
the UNLV case actually supports a reduction of that sanction, and we are
astounded by an error so fundamental and critical to the IAC's decision."
Phillips acknowledged the mistake, but when asked if the misinformation
was a basis for the committee's findings, he said: "None whatsoever."
UA said the infractions committee didn't account for the NCAA enforcement
staff's failure to alert the school to 1996 violations involving the
recruitment of Smith until 2000.
"The enforcement staff failing to provide that information to the
university is very regrettable," Phillips said. "In the future
that needs to be a mitigating factor."
But, he added, most of the damaging evidence involving Smith was not known
in 1996 and came to light in recent interviews. "Beyond that, it's
very speculative as to what may have happened or what might not have happened"
if UA had been informed sooner.
UA argued that violations found in the Smith recruitment came outside
the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations.
But the appeals committee said the charges involved a particular booster,
Young, who was named in other violations and as allowed by NCAA rules
established a pattern.
UA argued that the NCAA violated its own bylaws by relying upon at least
one confidential source.
"The confidential witness was made available to the university, who
had the opportunity to interview that particular witness and determine
the credibility of that witness," Phillips said, and there "was
ample evidence beyond what this particular witness provided that supported
the findings."
UA argued it shouldn't be harshly punished as a "repeat violator,"
considering that its 1999 men's basketball case involving former assistant
coach Tyrone Beaman was self-reported by the school and that Beaman's
alleged solicitation of recruiting money from Montgomery boosters was
identified before rules were broken.
"Again, (the 1999 case) shows the commitment the University of Alabama
has toward compliance," Phillips said, "and the Committee on
Infractions, based upon institutional cooperation, so noted it."
Still a repeat violator:
But the committee said UA would have been a "repeat violator"
nonetheless, because the Smith violations occurred one year after a 1995
football probation relating to former defensive back Antonio Langham.
Langham played in several games in 1993 after signing with an agent.
Also Tuesday, the appeals committee upheld findings against former UA
assistant football coach Ronnie Cottrell, who argued that evidence concerning
his receipt of two loans from Young totaling $56,600 didn't constitute
a violation, and that he shouldn't have been cited for failing to
make full disclosures to investigators.
Todd Vargo, Cottrell's Birmingham attorney, said the former Crimson
Tide recruiting coordinator was "disappointed but not surprised"
with the NCAA's latest decision.
"Ronnie's disappointed with the NCAA for failing to provide some
relief that we believe is warranted," Vargo said.
UA Athletics Director Mal Moore also voiced displeasure with the day's
news. "Our appeal was made on what we considered a very strong case,"
Moore said in a prepared statement, "and we are disappointed with
the result."
News staff writers Mike Bolton and Doug Segrest contributed to this report.